Hospitals and physicians are struggling to better understand resource use, cost of care and outcomes, in order to meet the demands of rising care costs. But they are limited by existing administrative and clinical databases that communicate poorly and store information in disparate systems. As a result, the full potential to synthesize this critically important data for driving change in quality and efficiency goes unrealized.

Socrates Analytics, Inc., has the ability to overcome these obstacles by providing hospital administrators with the ability to look across a number of existing data systems, capture entire episodes of care and develop unique care pathways and manage resources across the hospital. A cloud-based software program, Socrates Analytics collects, standardizes, analyzes and reports on disparate hospital billing, administrative and operating room data.

Socrates Analytics was created and developed in 2007 by Conor Delaney, MD, PhD, Chief of the Division of Colorectal Surgery at UH Case Medical Center, who sought to answer questions such as What is driving costs in the operating room? and What factors are associated with readmissions within 30 days of discharge?.

Dr. Delaney envisioned a way to integrate disparate hospital administrative software systems to facilitate reporting on operational metrics, such as operating room use, hospital bed requirements and length-of-stay, direct and indirect costs, income, the measurement and management of outcomes, and efficiency of care. Socrates gives hospitals the opportunity to interpret complex administrative data and view trends, outliers and variability in the process, so they can improve their efficiency and terms of care, said Dr. Delaney, who is also Professor of Surgery at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Michael Szubski, Chief Financial Officer for UH, said, With government reimbursement policies increasingly holding health care providers financially responsible for inefficient and inappropriate care, Socrates Analytics can create new standards for ensuring quality of care for the benefit of our patients and community. In our use of it, Socrates has helped us continually improve patient care using data-driven analysis. In addition, Socrates will be a powerful tool for advancing clinical and health services research.

Through UH's support and grants from The Cleveland Foundation and the Ohio Savings Foundation, Socrates is poised to support the UH system and other healthcare facilities.

Kendall Wouters, CEO of Reach Ventures said, With Dr. Delaney's vision realized through the on-going support of University Hospitals and the region, Socrates will help many hospitals visualize their cost structure and make objective, evidence-based decisions to improve their operations while ensuring the highest quality of care.